'80 300SD Help with a loss of power, accelerator "sticking", engine revs in Park

[WrightSounds]

seems you have discovered quite a few of the model's charms in a short period of ownership.  Don't despair however as in context of the car's age, none of these events is unusual.  The linkage problem was not the car's fault and now you know how important vacuum line maintenance is

No despair here... just trying to keep my wife on the same page as me 

It's amazing how much better it runs after the valve adjustment, isn't it? 

Yes!  It was a LOL/holy sh!t moment when I started down the road.

Sounds like you are well on your way to being a W116 Enthusiast!

10/10 so far

Oh yeah... thanks!

[shadetree77]

the shop that did your valve adjustment probably didn't put everything back correctly, i'd stay away from them

[WrightSounds]

the shop that did your valve adjustment probably didn't put everything back correctly, i'd stay away from them

Yeah, unfortunately I lost total faith in that particular shop. I really want to like them, too. I like talking to the actual mechanic that will be doing the work but I've since moved onto the "high brow" shop in town where I talk to the counter guy and have no idea who is actually working on my car. The original place has stellar reviews online. I really think their operation is too small and unorganized for the amount of work they get. Regardless, pretty crappy mistake. They also didn't handle the situation well IMO when I went back to show them their mistake.

[JasonP]

I've had the same experience. I really like the owner of my shop, he's an old timer who knows his stuff, but his employees are just kind of sloppy, and I've seen some obvious mistakes when my car has come back.

Unless the car needs to be aligned or put up on a lift, I'm trying to do it all myself. One, I save money. Two, it's fun. And three, nobody will take as much care of your care as you, the owner. I just have to know my limitations.

[Tony66_au]

A common enough mistake to leave shit half done or unfinished and yep, Its lack of Due diligence on the part of the Boss.

I used to eyeball every job before it was billed out, Job card in hand checking it was all nipped up and done the way I tell them to do it.

Pissed a few guys off, one left and another got sacked and both got replaced by better people.

Simple stuff like not checking your work, Over tightened belts and mistake coverups drive me mad as well as blame shifting and finger pointing and yet they are all common place in Mech workshops.

I also as a matter of course would keep all replaced parts and put them in the boot/trunk of the clients cars in plastic bags so the client could see what we replaced and it was their choice to keep or throw the old stuff away which also saved me a fortune in industrial waste services lol

So, Here is your account sir/madam, here are your busted/worn bits in a nice sealed baggy and here is your road report/test drive.

Full transparency, nothing hidden = Trust and word of mouth referrals = Ker CHING! = Smiles all round.

[Tony66_au]

BTW Id also (Depending on time and interest) Run the client through the job done...

All of this takes a little extra time but all workshops should do this stuff, it costs little extra and solves a lot of issues before they become expensive problems and for those of you who are not mech guru's dont be scared to ask for the above to be done.

[JasonP]

I also as a matter of course would keep all replaced parts and put them in the boot/trunk of the clients cars in plastic bags so the client could see what we replaced and it was their choice to keep or throw the old stuff away which also saved me a fortune in industrial waste services lol

That's way cool. When I got my flex plates and engine mounts replaced, I asked for the parts back, because I wanted to see what they looked like, for future reference when I learned enough to do it myself. I also wanted to see what the damage and wear looked like. I even asked to see the dirty oil filter when they changed the oil! The shop was pretty cool about it, they let me see and keep everything, but they might have thought I was being a jerk, trying to find something they did wrong, like I didn't trust them. I was just curious, that's all.

[Tony66_au]

I didnt want to put my clients in the situation where they would have to ask so we did it as a matter of course, it also goes a long way to smacking the doom and gloom idiots from making snide remarks because any evidence of wrong doing was right there in the boot of the car.

We had an old C4 Corvette come back with a blown transmission when we first started out and the owner was wondering if we had hammered the thing on a test drive and busted it as the car had recently been in for routine service work, We fished the broken bits bag out of the bin where the client had dumped it and went to see our trans guy who explained the breakages and how it would happen which came down to systematic and prolonged abuse so the guy went home still cranky but a bit more vigilant.

Turns out he chucked a nanny cam in the garage/car hole and caught his oldest son sneaking the thing out when Dad was away which started to explain the other driver theory.

Got us off the hook with extra brownie points and the guy sent us more business too.

Customer service isnt hard or expensive and the payoff in the long run is well worth it, which makes me scratch my head in disgust with the total Tards who seem to inhabit the industry, Then again im not a Mechanic. I just wrangled and paid em.

[WrightSounds]

I also as a matter of course would keep all replaced parts and put them in the boot/trunk of the clients cars in plastic bags so the client could see what we replaced and it was their choice to keep or throw the old stuff away which also saved me a fortune in industrial waste services lol

So, Here is your account sir/madam, here are your busted/worn bits in a nice sealed baggy and here is your road report/test drive.

Full transparency, nothing hidden = Trust and word of mouth referrals = Ker CHING! = Smiles all round.

Sounds like exactly what I do with my guitar repair biz. Sometimes I get weird looks when they see old corroded potentiometers in a plastic bag in their case. But at least they know what I've done. And I always describe to my clients what the job entailed. Whether or not its going in one ear and out the other doesn't bother me